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October 06, 2011

On the Road with Mellanox Technologies

By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor

Founded in 1999, Mellanox (News - Alert) Technologies has come a long way since its inception. As a supplier of end-to-end InfiniBand and Ethernet connectivity solutions and services for servers and storage, Mellanox focuses on the data center and how to converge legacy equipment with newer technologies for an efficient future.

As part of its On the Road Series, TMCnet’s Erik Linask (News - Alert) had a chance to sit down with John Monson of Mellanox Technologies to discuss 10GbE, 40GbE, and Mellanox’s latest product, the Connect X-3.

The ConnectX-3 10/40GbE adapters for VMware ESXi 5.0 recently launched by Mellanox further extend the value of ConnectX-3 in virtualized data centers and enables customers to achieve higher efficiency by running more jobs per second over their existing infrastructure.

What’s unique about the Connect X-3 is VPI, or virtual protocol interconnect, noted Monson. This means it can run 10Gb Ethernet, 40Gb Ethernet, or it can run Infiniband up to 56Gb per second from the same card.

“You can plug in whatever protocol you’re looking for on the outside,” said Monson.

As far as the technology adoption rate, Monson expects this to grow over the next 12 months.

On the 40Gb Ethernet side, it’s still early. Right now, we’re still in the thick of 10GbE, however, 40GbE has its place in helping with throughput, efficiency, and latency.

As for the future of 100GbE, Monson feels it all depends on where you are in the network.

“In the data center, it’s still really early. 40GbE will roll out over the next 12 to 18 months. In the WAN, you see 100GbE being deployed. What needs to happen in the data center is it needs to get higher density and a lot lower cost to be able to connect those servers,” said Monson.

Mellanox has its sights set on the next generation of its FDR technology and EDR technology which is 100Gb per second which aligns well with 100GbE.

“You can anticipate we’ll have similar type products that do both 100GbE and 100Gb Infiniband,” said Monson.

Michelle Amodio is a TMCnet contributor. She has helped promote companies and groups in all industries, from technology to banking to professional roller derby. She holds a bachelor's degree in Writing from Endicott College and currently works in marketing, journalism, and public relations as a freelancer.